THE CANADIAN PRESS
RED DEER, Alta. — The son of a former Edmonton police chief who was convicted of killing a 31-year-old woman has been ordered to spend at least 16 years in prison before he’s eligible for parole.
Mark Lindsay, who is 29, was sentenced Thursday in Red Deeer provincial court following his conviction in May on charges of second-degree murder and obstructing justice in the death of Dana Turner.
Court had heard that Turner, who was from Fort Saskatchewan, was killed in Edmonton in August 2011 and that her body was found dumped near Innisfail almost two months later.
Lindsay wiped away tears as victim impact statements were read prior to sentencing, but he opted not to address the court.
The defence argued during a three-week judge-alone trial that the accused should not be held criminally responsible due to schizophrenia.
A second-degree murder conviction comes with an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for at least 10 years.
Lindsay — the son of former Edmonton police chief John Lindsay — admitted to killing Turner, but said he did so because he believed she was part of a group of supernatural serial killers.
His lawyer had argued that Lindsay suffered a decade of escalating mental illness before the crime, but Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Eldon Simpson determined Lindsay could be held criminally responsible for the slaying.
The Crown maintained that there was nothing to indicate Lindsay showed any fear of Turner in the days leading up to her murder.
Turner was Lindsay’s girlfriend at the time of her death and the trial heard she was stabbed in the eye with a pencil before she was strangled with a shoelace.
Simpson ruled in May that Lindsay’s conduct “shows purposeful and logical steps to cover up what he had done.” He also said that Lindsay”understood what he did was wrong.”
Turner would have turned 37 on Friday. In their victim impact statements, the woman’s mother, father and siblings referred to her as an “angel” who was “free-spirited, loving, caring and forgiving.”